Comparing city practitioners’ and residents’ perceptions of a liveable neighbourhood in Finland

Planning sustainable and liveable communities requires considering residents’ perceptions and preferences. However, practitioners’ values and preferences can also determine the development of neighbourhoods, which has rarely been recognized. Thus, we compared if residents’ and practitioners’ perceptions match regarding 1) factors they considered valuable for neighbourhoods and 2) the development needs of specific neighbourhoods. We studied three Finnish suburbs using practitioner workshops and residential surveys. In general, the practitioners’ and residents’ values matched well. Both groups rated cleanliness, non-traffic related safety, essential services, and green spaces as the most important factors. However, residents valued traffic safety and lighting of routes more than practitioners. The practitioners and residents mostly agreed on how to develop the neighbourhoods in the future. The resident views not fully considered in the practitioners’ development objectives were noise disturbances, and infill development as a threat to green spaces. This study underlined the importance of considering safety and access to green spaces in planning and developing suburbs. The study also revealed the complexity of integrating different aspects of liveability on an individual and neighbourhood/city scale. The integration of different dimensions of liveability in planning may require the use of participatory planning-support tools.